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Subaru Outback vs Ford Freestyle
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Comments
I think you are confused regarding quality. Dollar for dollar the Freestyle will be far less expensive to own over a five year period than a German make.
"German engineering" has become an oxymoron. If you look at the initial quality ratings, Audi/Volkswagen has a long way to go. They are expensive to buy, expensive to maintain and do not have great resale value. Mercedes has suffered a similar fate - they rank 17th overall.
The value is from the East (Toyota, Honda, Hyndai (sp?). Statistically though, Ford and GM have come a long way and are worthy of consideration.
How?
I've been very pleased with my Ford appliances . . just as happy as my brothers with their Hondas and Toyotas.
The Freestyle is much, much bigger inside than the Outback, bigger even than the Tribeca. It's about a foot longer than the Outback on the outside.
My family actually enjoyed crawling around in the inside, with all the space and flexibility. The fit/quality could have been better but it wasn't bad for the price.
It felt a bit bland for me, nothing truly bad about it, but nothing inspiring. It drove and felt like a decent minivan, basically. Steering too light, too much lean, sort of soft. The Subies feel more fun.
Our conclusion was we would just buy a van instead, because it didn't seem to have any advantages over a van besides "not being a van". LOL
Steep depreciation, for us, was a good thing because we would consider a used one. Reliability is much below average if you believe CR, so that's a concern as well.
Overall, though, it has some great packaging that Subaru could learn a thing or two from.
-juice
No advantages over a minivan? What about..
1) Much better gas mileage
2) Hugely better crash protection (Volvo XC90 chassis)
3) No minivan stigma
The Ody gets 20/28 and the Sienna is close to that, too, so mileage isn't really a lot better than the minivan leaders. Though it is much better than Ford's own van, the Freestar. That's a pretty low standard to compare, though.
As for the stigma, the funny thing is that most of my male friends own minivans nowadays. I don't really care about that stuff anyway.
-juice
You and I both. Drive what works best for the need! I almost think of the Freestyle as a "shaved down" Expedition - and that is not necessarily a bad thing. The newer Expeditions are very comfortable vehicles.
I certainly prefer the better road feel of the Subaru Outback, but the Fords have far better road feel than, say, their GM counterparts. I never got so far as to test drive a Freestyle, but my guess is that it probably "feels" similar to the Expedition (in terms of pedals, steering) except with better handling characteristics and fuel economy!
Tough to say. If it were to have a few more years of production and evolve a little more, I would reconsider it. The depreciation really gives me pause, though.
I don't like the Expedition much (I prefer small cars) but my wife test drove one and loved it. Gas mileage was dismal and that kept us away.
-juice
I would not use that word at all. I have had the FS in curvy mountain roads several times. It handles extremely well; very stable. And the ride is not overly damped; one can feel the road.
If you took a ride at the dealer, maybe they had the tire pressure too low, to improve the ride...
I agree. While it doesn't drive like a sports car, neither does it drive like a Lincoln Town Car.
Sorry, I've been away the past 4 days helping raise money by doing a charity drive with 40 other Subaru owners all over the NY/NJ/PA/VT area. I will respond to your question, so get your panties out of a bunch!
-mike
I just wish they'd update it. How old is that design? 8 years now? At least they're cheap.
-juice
Regards,
Kyle
-mike
Regards,
Kyle
-mike
Toyota just announced a 1/2 million vehicle recall.
It happens to the best of them .
Mike K happy with his 06 outback.
Regards,
Kyle
-mike
AWD has a market value of about $1750 or so, depending on the type of system.
Any how, the Ford Five Hundred is getting the 3.5l engine, does that mean the Freestyle gets the same upgrade for the 08 models? Does it also get a face-lift like the sedan did?
-juice
-mike
I predict the 3.5l engine will help sales, I bet they go up a good 20% or so.
To me the FS with the 3.5l makes a lot more sense than the Edge. Much more room and it's actually lighter, go figure.
-juice
I came to the same conclusion. At first glance, I thought the Edge had quite a bit of potential as it was a "smaller" car and seemed more in line with my needs. But, the more I read on it, the less I liked it. The Mazda CX7 fell into that same hole. In the end, it did not matter at all because my wife did not consider anything other than Subaru. :P
The pair of big hang ups with the "possibles" list was the price range limitation and AWD (or 4WD, but AWD preferred). I ended up with a hodge-podge list of wagons (or wagon-ish vehicles, like the 4-door Jeep Wrangler) and mid-size CC pickups. I was actually leaning toward the pickup, but one of those "you are out of your gourd" looks from her was enough to silence me on it. I will just have to keep Ol' Yeller in service a while longer.
Did you consider the Honda Ridgeline?
Edge is too heavey. CX9 is actually closer to my ideal, but for some reason when I sat in one at the Auto Show, it just didn't do it for me. Hard to even explain why.
I'll have to take another look at one of those CX9s, though.
-juice
Krzys
-juice
I was wondering if the change of name affects a car resale value.
-juice
That's a big MINUS, in my book.
-mike
It's what the automatic transmission should have ALWAYS been.
"I'm not completely sold on the CVT concept on a whole"
Armchair test drivers at their finest... You probably are still intimidated by the whole concept of fuel injection as well, what no carb under here...what gives???
CVT in these type of vehicles is a fantastic solution, what's not to like about seamless acceleration, better mileage, less parts to break, simpler in concept, that's what's getting you, it's actually simpler...
As for simpler, lets see how much the repairs cost when they start hitting 100k+ miles. Also note that CVT for some reason has been dropped by most folks who had them burst onto the market in the past few years most notably the Saturn and Ford CVTs have been canned. I think only the Nissan CVT is still widely used.
-mike
As for seamless acceleration, no thanks. I think that would just put the driver one step closer to removal from the driving experience. But, I might change my mind as I age.